Hasta La Gadget!

It’s not only Taylor Swift fans and the US government who aren’t happy about Ticketmaster. The UK government is set to look into the company’s dynamic pricing model after millions of Oasis fans scrambled for tickets to the band’s reunion tour over the weekend.

Once fans got through hours-long queues to make their purchase, some found that the price of a standing ticket was suddenly 2.5 times more expensive — in one case, going up from £135 to £337.50 ($177 to $444). Ticketmaster often gives customers just seconds to decide whether to complete a purchase once tickets are in their cart, so they don’t have much time to determine whether such a hefty price increase is worth it.

Many fans didn’t manage to buy Oasis tickets before they sold out on Ticketmaster. So, if they really want to see Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage together for the first time in 16 years, they may have to resort to resale sites where some touts are trying to sell tickets for nearly $8,000 each.

The chaos and complaints about the dynamic pricing model caught the attention of Lisa Nandy, the UK’s culture secretary. Nandy said it was “depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favorite band live,” according to The Guardian.

“This government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music. So we will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queueing systems which incentivise it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales,” Nandy said. “Working with artists, industry and fans, we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales and ensures tickets at fair prices.”

Before the Labour Party won July’s general election, leader Sir Keir Starmer vowed to cap resale ticket prices for music and sports events. The government announced it would hold a consultation into the secondary-ticket market this fall and the issue of dynamic pricing will now be factored in.

Ticketmaster doesn’t set prices itself. The company said that’s a decision for event organizers. In other words, the promoters. But artists have a say as well. Swift, Ed Sheeran and The Cure are among the big names who have opted not to use dynamic pricing on recent tours. However, Bruce Springsteen caused a stir in 2022 when he said he’d use the model.

Meanwhile, Ticketmaster is in hot water Stateside. In May, the Justice Department and dozens of state and district attorneys general filed an antitrust suit in an attempt to break up Ticketmaster owner Live Nation, claiming it held an unlawful monopoly over the live entertainment industry.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-uk-government-will-investigate-ticketmasters-dynamic-pricing-model-after-oasis-chaos-195446622.html?src=rss

A federal judge has ruled that social media companies can’t be required to block certain types of content from teens. The ruling will prevent some aspects of a controversial social media law in Texas from going into effect.

The ruling came as the result of tech industry groups’ challenge to the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, a Texas law that imposes age verification requirements and other policies for how social media companies treat teenage users. But, as The Verge points out, the measure also requires companies to “prevent the known minor’s exposure to harmful material,” including content that “glorifies” self-harm and substance abuse.

It’s that latter requirement that was struck down, with the judge saying that “a state cannot pick and choose which categories of protected speech it wishes to block teenagers from discussing online.” The judge also criticized the language used in the law, writing in his decision that terms like “glorifying” and “promoting” are “politically charged” and “undefined.”

At the same time, the judge left other aspects of the law, including age verification requirements and bans on targeted advertising to minors, in place. NetChoice, the tech industry group that challenged the law, has argued that measures like the Scope Act require major tech companies to increase the amount of data collected from minors.

The Texas law, originally passed last year, is one of many across the country attempting to change how social media platforms deal with underage users. New York recently passed two laws restricting social media companies’ ability to collect data on teenage users, and requiring parental consent for younger users to access “addictive” features like algorithmic feeds. California lawmakers also recently passed a measure, which has yet to be signed into law by the governor, that requires social media companies to limit notifications to minors and restrict them from “addictive” algorithms.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/social-media-companies-cant-be-forced-to-block-teens-from-seeing-harmful-content-judge-rules-221321184.html?src=rss

Apple’s M4 Mac mini will boast a ton of ports, but not a single one of them will be USB-A, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In the Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that Apple is ditching USB-A ports with the upcoming Mac mini. The company is working on a standard and Pro version of the computer, and while it won’t have USB-A, the Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip will have five USB-C ports, an ethernet port, HDMI and a headphone jack, according to Gurman. The new Mac mini is also expected to have an internal power supply. Gurman reports that the standard and Pro versions will begin shipping to warehouses in September and October, respectively.

Apple is also reportedly working on a cheaper, pared down version of its Magic Keyboard that’s slated to launch “by the middle of next year.” The company introduced a new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro this spring, and Gurman indicates it’s now turning its attention to the non-Pro devices. He writes that the upcoming accessory “will be a low-end version that may be designed for an entry-level iPad or the new iPad Airs.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apple-reportedly-plans-to-drop-usb-a-ports-with-the-m4-mac-mini-and-is-working-on-a-low-end-magic-keyboard-154306266.html?src=rss

Apple’s M4 Mac mini will boast a ton of ports, but not a single one of them will be USB-A, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In the Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that Apple is ditching USB-A ports with the upcoming Mac mini. The company is working on a standard and Pro version of the computer, and while it won’t have USB-A, the Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip will have five USB-C ports, an ethernet port, HDMI and a headphone jack, according to Gurman. The new Mac mini is also expected to have an internal power supply. Gurman reports that the standard and Pro versions will begin shipping to warehouses in September and October, respectively.

Apple is also reportedly working on a cheaper, pared down version of its Magic Keyboard that’s slated to launch “by the middle of next year.” The company introduced a new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro this spring, and Gurman indicates it’s now turning its attention to the non-Pro devices. He writes that the upcoming accessory “will be a low-end version that may be designed for an entry-level iPad or the new iPad Airs.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apple-reportedly-plans-to-drop-usb-a-ports-with-the-m4-mac-mini-and-is-working-on-a-low-end-magic-keyboard-154306266.html?src=rss

Starliner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station and make its return trip to Earth uncrewed in just a matter of days, but it apparently still has a few new mysteries left in it to throw at the team before it departs. On Saturday, astronaut Butch Wilmore alerted NASA’s Mission Control about an unexplained “strange noise” coming from a speaker in the spacecraft, which you can hear in an audio clip of the conversation shared on a NASASpaceflight forum by meteorologist Rob Dale (spotted by Ars Technica). It starts at around the 45-second mark, ringing out on a steady beat. “I don’t know what’s making it,” Wilmore said.

After confirming they could hear the sound too, once Wilmore brought his mic over to the speaker, the flight controller in Houston said, “It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping.” Wilmore then lets it play for about 20 seconds more before wrapping up the call. “Just to make sure I’m on the same page, this is emanating from the speaker in Starliner,” Mission Control asked, “you don’t notice anything else, any other noises, any weird configs in there?” The astronaut notes that everything else seems normal.

It’s still unclear what caused the sound. The Boeing spacecraft has been docked with the ISS since early June, and engineers have since had their hands full trying to get to the bottom of the issues that arose during its first crewed flight. When Starliner finally heads back to Earth on September 6, it’ll be leaving its crew — Wilmore and NASA astronaut Suni Williams — behind on the ISS, where they’ll continue to work for the next few months while they wait for a ride home from SpaceX in February 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/now-theres-a-creepy-sonar-like-sound-coming-through-one-of-starliners-speakers-184751210.html?src=rss